June 29, 2010 01:24 AM UTC

Erickson Defends Buck: "Shouldn't This Make Him a Hero?"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Eric Erickson, founder of the influential conservative blog RedState–who has consistently supported GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck over Jane Norton, well before it was fashionable–swings into action today in defense of Buck over last week’s U.S. Attorney story.

It’s clear that the U.S. Attorney is pursuing the cases to rebuild his own career and again run for higher office. It’s clear the ATF wants these cases in the headlines as the Clinton Administration begins a renewed push to cripple the legal sales of firearms.

Even worse, internal memoranda confidentially circulating within the U.S. Attorney’s office clearly state that the cases are weak and probably should not be prosecuted.

What do you do if you are the Assistant United States Attorney?

That’s not a hypothetical. Ken Buck faced that exact scenario. And what did he do?

He risked reprimand and told the defense about the memos…

How is it not awesome that a man risked his entire legal career to shut down political motivated prosecutions designed not just to advance the political career of a Democrat hack, but also designed to undermine the legal permitting and purchasing of firearms?

This should qualify Ken Buck for automatic hero status…

Erickson’s defense of Buck echoes what we said about this scandal in general: it won’t hurt Buck in the primary, since the underlying gun-rights issues tend to provoke sympathy for Buck from many conservatives, not outrage. At the same time, Erickson’s appeal to gun-rights ideology over Buck’s duty as a prosecutor won’t stand up to scrutiny in the general election, where voters will think more dispassionately about the issues involved. Besides, we don’t really think Buck wants to be labeled as the heroic prosecutor who, uh, didn’t prosecute the bad guys–that’s not a winning formula.

For the present, though, Buck can count himself lucky to have a persuasive friend.